[Hackrf-dev] Shielding and distance from the PC makes a difference!

[Peter Jones]

A few notes to anyone else having issues with noise and instability:

After playing with Hack RF for about a week, I have found that

1) Placing the HackRF unit on top of a computer adds so much noise it 
cant receive much of anything. Place the HackRF unit as far from the 
computer as the USB cable permits. For about a day I couldn't figure out 
why I could not receive FM stations with gnuradio-companion even though 
everything  seemed fine.

2) Particularly in the GHz bands, even simple shielding makes a huge 
difference. I covered my unit with aluminum foil (which I clipped to one 
of the clock SMA connector to ground it) and performance improved 
dramatically. I am going to try the NooElec enclosure kit and RF Shield 
and how well they work.